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That's kind of how I play... and I LOVE IT! I've been told that I'm a flashy player.
I play super aggressively. As of right now, I'd be a power looper.
I know firsthand the detriments of this kind of play style. I would look back on the games I've play and see a 2 giant themes.
1. The opponent didn't get to attack
2. I always "killed myself"
I started playing this way because I hated being attacked. I didn't how to block well, but seeing the Chinese just attack and counter attack made me want to do the same.
The first thing I learned how to loop underspin. (To this day, this is my best shot.) Why didn't I learn to loop topspin first? The players around me at the time were just older people who served underspin, pushed half long, and smashed, so the most common spin I'd see was underspin.
Then I learned how to loop kinds of serves. Here, I learned how to see the difference between half long and short balls.
After I started playing with loopers, I learned how to serve short underspin and push short. I realized when I started out that giving short balls gave you a much better chance attacking first. I practiced for hours, day after day, serving short underspin. I was still pretty bad at ping pong then. No one wanted to play with me, so I had a lot of time to familiarize myself with service. I pretty much got myself an "unattackable serve", at least for players at the level.
Against the loopers, I would lose the point almost every time my opponent attacked. Instead of learning how to deal with this situation, I sought to prevent it from happening all together.
I started learning how to third ball attack. I took every chance I got to attack. I would internally yell at myself for pushing a ball that I could have attacked.
I learned how to attack short balls in the process. I was getting better at drop shotting, since I stopped pushing long all together. I did everything I could to prevent my opponent's attack. I would try to shut down their game by giving everything short, and attacked whenever I could.
I got used to everything. Players varied service spin/placement, placing pushes to different angles, pushing hard and long, and everything in between. I never served topspin. Reading serves became a lot easier for me. I instinctively attack a push. I played my first tournament, the NJTTC 2013 November Open, and was rated 1862.
My play style worked. Players around 2000 weren't too confident with their short game and tried to get me to miss my attacks by varying everything pushes and serves. I was able to deal with most of the serves(loop or drop shot), and almost all of the pushes, so it was quite successful against those who couldn't serve short spinny or drop shot, those who couldn't block my opening loop (remember, looping underspin is my best shot, and I've been practicing my attack the whole time, so my opening loop was really above my level). As for topspin, I was getting there. But people don't like to serve topspin very much, since they want to attack first too.
I would lose to people who were as aggressive more aggressive than I (I'm starting to see more of these players the higher I go up the rating ladder), those who could block well(I beat Richard DeWitt though that was fun), and those who had great short game.
Back to the 2 themes, I would often "kill myself", meaning I would often lose the point by missing my attacks. I figured this is natural. After all, attacking is hard, and you have to play worse before you start improving.
People would tell me to chill out, and play smart. I still don't think too much of not attacking first. I figured that I would start playing smart when I can't overpower my opponent (I still played kind of well against defenders).
My thinking was that I should be able to win more than 1/2 the points by attacking. Also, I didn't think too much of missing anyways. Moreover, I told myself that this was for the sake of improvement.
As for the other theme, players told that I took their game from them. It sort of became not fun, because they ended up with no options. I had never thought about too much at the start. I don't want to turn people away from the sport.
I'm starting to change my playstyle now, since I think my playstyle is hindering my development. Now, I'm counter attacking, and I've gotten pretty good at it! REALLY FUN and EVEN MORE FLASHY.
But in all seriousness, I've got to start learning to block well in games.
I think it's hindering my development.
Should I start getting used to being attacked? Show I change how I play?
Also, feel free to post your own playstyle. I'm curious too see how other players came to play how they play.
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